All Fantasia's Eve
by JeffC FTW
Summary: Kim, Monty, Sara and their animal friends celebrate their first Halloween with a beloved animated classic. Seventh in the Monkey Fist Saga.


**In perfect time for Halloween, I thought I'd do a short story about how a now engaged Kim and Monty spend their first Halloween together with Sara, Rufus, Bates and the monkey ninjas. Takes place during the epilogue of "The Monkey King Takes His Queen". :D And the title of the fic itself should give away which Disney classic is involved in here.**

 **Nothing of Kim Possible is mine, and neither is Fantasia. I only own Kim's young daughter.**

The doorbell ringing barely a quarter to an hour later after she brought the little girl home from kindergarten was enough to send five-year-old Sara into a frenzy.

Sara's crystal green eyes were on fire. "Mommy, Mommy, it's here!" It had been a week since her mother had gotten her costume in time for Halloween, which wasn't for another week, but Kim hadn't gotten the garment on the same day as they'd picked it out at Smarty Mart because she hadn't saved up enough in time until next pay day. Sara had been sorely disappointed and stuck her lower lip out in a pout, but her mother promised she would have it, and in time for Halloween.

Except this wasn't Sara's costume, because her costume had not been ordered by mail. Only the kid didn't know that.

Kim had opened the box on the top and tore the receipt off from the outside, grinning to herself as she envisioned how she might look for her fiancé on Halloween, when it would be just the two of them and Sara would be trick-or-treating with the other kids and their chaperone. While her mommy and future new daddy would be off with the other adults to a more grown-up festivity.

"Oi, booyah!" Rufus exclaimed when he glimpsed the certain color that he knew was not Sara's. "Mm-hmm!" He nodded his approval, and that sparked the child's impatient curiosity even more.

"May I see it, Mommy? When is mine coming?"

Kim cracked her a little grin. "It's actually waiting for you. Wait here, and I'll go get it."

~o~

"Interesting...very interesting..." he mused aloud as he read the Gaelic inscription on the back of the talisman, murmuring the words aloud to himself: _"Bhrionnú thy chroí ris mianach..."_

 _Forge thy heart unto mine..._

Smooth, mossy green agate was carved into the shape of a heart, measuring about the palm of his hand, shielded in the front with graceful eternal lines honoring its birthplace. Behind was the scripture in the language, carved cleverly into the genuine stone. This treasure was a good luck charm, protective of the soul as well as the very important center of one's being. Everyone knew the symbolism of love, but rarely was the knowledge to the uneducated that alchemists and ritualists used this as an amorous charm; they were intended to make a relationship nurture and last through life.

Ironically so, the Egyptians depicted the heart as important, for during mummification, it was the only vital organ that was never removed. It was indeed no surprise that the Christians pertained the heart to forgiveness and hope.

Lord Monty Fiske was sitting at his desk in the bedroom he shared with Kimberly, his fiancée and love of his life, the late afternoon sun streaming in and illuminating the mossy stone which meant peace, luck and protection, as well as curing bad luck and dreams. It had been Kim who found this in the northwestern British Isles, having been aiding in the collapse of an old shrine in the eastern region - and that was when a remarkable discovery had been made. Given little known records and archival evidence of the ancient Druids, it was a stunning surprise to discover that a possible love icon had been concocted by one of the tribes. She'd discovered a certain old oak tree near the tomb of ancient stones, ceremonial in the Iron Ages, and within the nook inside was a vast collection of powders, small animal remains, mistletoe...but the exquisite jewel stood out.

"The museum will very much appreciate you added to their collection, my little friend," he said huskily as he found himself drawn into its spell, the shade mirroring the woman he was going to marry in the coming summer...

"Talking to your work again, eh, Monty?"

He blinked at the sound of her voice. He hadn't heard her come in. "Ah, I wasn't aware of my surroundings again, my dear," he answered smoothly. "I still cannot get over marveling your latest finding." He held up the charm by its chain; it dangled like a hypnosis charm before her eyes. "A work of your own hand; I am only secondary in further examination, remember?"

For the first time, he noticed the box in her hands, raising an eyebrow and taking a guess. "May I see it?" he drawled, envisioning something utterly sultry while they had the night with the other adults and the children were out in the streets, going house-to-house for their treats until late enough.

"Tsk, tsk, not yet," Kim answered, shaking her shoulder-length hair out of the way in a cocky gesture that thrilled him. Her demeanor was always one of the things he loved about her. "Not until Halloween, Your Lordship."

Monty sighed. She enjoyed tormenting him with her surprises, but then again, he had the dying-hard habit of doing the same to her. "Isn't there anything you can show me until then?" he asked, gaining another idea that would make up for the agonizing wait. Ever since moving in with her and Sara following selling his estate to become historical grounds, to even experience being a family man was an all-new adventure for him. Never did he think he would be sacrificing so much in his life for this blessed happiness that was his bride-to-be and stepdaughter. How could he have once believed that unspeakable, unlimited power was more important than _this?_

She was just putting the box into a space she made in the topmost shelf of their shared closet when she turned halfway and winked. "Sorry, we won't have time for that, remember? I'm getting everything ready for tonight. Did you forget?"

"Now, what could I have possibly forgotten, Kimberly?" Monty asked, leaning back in his chair and stretching his back.

"The _movie_?" A narrow auburn brow raised, challenging him to admit his guilt, striking him in remembrance.

"Oh, yes! How silly of me to forget that. It will be Sara's first time, is it not?"

"She'd been begging me for a long time, and I put it off long enough for my own obvious reasons," she answered, walking over to him and gripping both his shoulders, massaging his muscles and relaxing him. He leaned against her and sighed at her ministrations. "Have I told you...Ron and I also saw it when we were kids?"

He opened his eyes and looked at her, smiling slightly at the mention of her late husband before him. Time healed old adversarial wounds between the three of them. "Indeed. And if I recall correctly, there was one particular sequence bound to give the little one nightmares for quite a while to come..."

~o~

"I heard Jake at school talking about it," Sara was saying at dinner, which was nearing the end so they could all gather into the living room for the Disney classic _Fantasia_ \- a collection of animated orchestras in history, retold for young and mature audiences alike. Like she told Monty, she and Ron had seen this when they were young, but it was without adult supervision and caused them both to have nightmares for weeks if not months. She was not going to take this chance and let their daughter see this alone in her first time.

And what better timing than not long before Halloween?

"Really, what has he spoken of?" Monty asked after taking a sip of water following a down of the potatoes.

Sara, however, was chomping greedily on her meatloaf. "Said there's Mickey Mouse in one part, and another with dinosaurs, and another which was said to be scary." She chewed her lip nervously and looked between her mother and future stepfather. "I'm scared."

"Aw, don't worry," Kim assured her, reaching across the table and patting her head reassuringly. "We'll both be with you, won't we, baby?" She looked up at her fiancé and winked. In return, he cracked a grin to one corner of his mouth. His sharp eyes twinkled with anticipating what he never saw in his life, had yet to see this one with her and their makeshift family which was the three of them, as well as Rufus and what he had left of his monkey ninjas. Bates was back in England with his son's family.

Monty cleared his throat. "I wonder if I will enjoy this one like I have with the others before," he told little Sara with a playful narrow of the eyes, and she giggled.

"I'm excited!"

"Excited as you are for Halloween?" Kim asked, standing up and picking up the dishes. The house had been decorated so far with the crafted graveyard and scattered bones on the front lawn, along with hanging Japanese lanterns - in honor of what had been close to Monty's heart - painted with jack-o-lantern faces, and in a couple days they would all go out and grab two or three real pumpkins to carve. There were also magnet characters of ghosts, witches, bats, pumpkins and so on plastered on the windows and on the refrigerator. "You're going to get your costume soon."

"Yay!" Sara screeched, with Rufus jumping off the table and following them in. "I can't wait to dress as Princess Aurora!" She stopped there to look up at Monty while watching as he helped her mother with the dishes. "Daddy, what are you going as?"

~o~

He could not suppress a chuckle when she asked him what he was dressing as for Halloween. He had not yet even married her mother - he and Kim had been engaged for four months now - and Sara had already been calling him "daddy". Not that he didn't appreciate it. "Angel, I doubt I will look magnificent as a silly character for one night," he told her, earning a playful slap on the arm.

"Now don't play modest," Kim mocked, laughing. "You'll look great."

"Doubtful." He snorted.

The family gathered in the living room not long after that, with the popcorn and drinks ready. Sara sat between him and her mother, with the naked mole rat plopped comfortably on a pillow amongst Chippy, his mate Lili and their young Katara, as well as Miko, Geko and Nira, all of whom ooked as the lights darkened, and the flatscreen television began with a live orchestra assembling amidst a blue background and the spokesman himself, a well-known critic in those times, appeared and explained to the audience that "on behalf of Walt Disney, Leopold Stokowski and others", this "new form of entertainment" would be presented.

 _"What you're going to see isn't the product of anyone's imagination. There are three kinds of music on this_ Fantasia _program. First, there's the kind that tells a very definite story. Then there's the other kind that, while it has no specific plot, does paint a series of more or less definite pictures. And third, there's the music that exists simply for its own sake. We are first going to hear a piece of music of this third kind..."_

This first piece happened to be none other than Johann Sebastian Bach's _Toccata and Fugue in D Minor_ , and this was a musical number that Monty had not heard in years, not since he was still in high school until his mid-twenties. It was a very famous organ work, presented now with the live-action orchestra and eventually morphed into a living abstract of color with shapes, lines and clouds to match the notes.

"Masterful," he whispered to Kim and Sara, the latter who shook her head impatiently.

"Good music, but I didn't like the pictures." He and Kim had to laugh at her opinion, before their attention was diverted back to the returning face of Deems Taylor himself.

 _"You know, it's funny how...wrong an artist can be about his own work. The one composition of Tchaikovsky's that he really detested was his_ Nutcracker Suite, _which is actually the most popular thing he ever wrote. It's a series of dances taken out of a full-length ballet called_ The Nutcracker, _which he once composed for the St. Petersburg Opera House. It wasn't much of a success and nobody performs it nowadays, but I'm pretty sure you'll recognize the music when you hear it. Incidentally, you won't see any Nutcracker; there's nothing left of him but the title."_

Now, this raptured Sara's attention from start to finish, with her coos of "Oh, that's so pretty! I wish I was a fairy!" That statement alone made him chuckle and think how typical of a little girl to imagine herself as something fantastical. Her comments went on: "Aww, I love the poor little mushroom trying to keep up with the others...the flowers on the water - I wish I was dancing with them...oooh, Mommy, I could be the princess that white fish is..."

The first part of the suite happened to be the "Dance of the Fairies", in springtime and blossoming late in the eve, then ending with a magical burst of color, bringing a group of mushrooms to life for a segment called the "Chinese Dance"; how easy it was to piece it together for anyone besides himself familiar with Chinese culture. After the mushroom waltz was the "Dance of the Flutes", which consisted of flowers swirling atop running water to a flute melody and tumbled down a waterfall...and onward to a beautiful, slow and haunting sequence of fish of all species, parting ways to give to the "Arabian Dance" which was of pink females forming a resemblance to the Middle Eastern symbol, before moving onward to black fish forming a lotus blossom in bloom which opened to let the white lead dance her number.

It was by the time the well-known "Russian Dance" made its appearance, the male dancers serving as thistles while the females were orchids. The jumpy beginning caused the monkeys and the rodent to jump and shriek in startle before pulling together as the performance drew them in with the energetic leaps of the thistles followed by the graceful strides of the orchids, drawing to a close and switching gears, spring and summer turning into fall, becoming the last dance known as "Waltz of the Flowers". The autumn fairies awoke and turned everything around them into warm fall shades, leaves dancing in the wind, culminating with ice sprites putting everything from water to plant life into frosty winter.

Kim was breathless by the time the conductor himself, Stokowski, waved the composition at an end. "God, it's still beautiful as I remember it," she said, turning to look up at Monty, who had no proper words to describe this. He settled on a nod. Even the monkeys were cheering at the bright colors and splendid music score, the marvelous performances. But that was not the end of it.

In Taylor's words, this new piece of music told a very definite story; in fact, first came the story itself and the music followed. _The Sorcerer's Apprentice_ \- in German, it was _Der Zauberlehrling_ and written in 1797 by the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, telling the very old story about a powerful wizard and his bright young apprentice - who was actually _too_ bright for his own good. Given as the story progressed, he had grown exhausted of handling water to fill a cauldron with his own two hands...and that was when the idea dawned on him when his attention befell on the old broomstick, bringing it to life using one of the tricks that his master taught him - but his brilliant idea turned against him, and the walking broom ended up overflowing the floor, forcing the apprentice - _Mickey Mouse_ , a classic character - to chop it into pieces, bearing multiple more sticks in the process, until his master returned and intervened. When you're young, you tend to be too rash with your thinking and bright ideas, and you have to learn your lessons the hard way.

"EEEE, Mickey was awesome!" Sara cheered, popping her mouth with some more popcorn. "This is my new favorite!"

Chuckling, Monty had to agree with her. The story itself was compelling, the score equally brilliant; there was not one thing wrong with this animated work of art thus far. Each time she made him watch her movies, so many of them based off a historical event, a classic fairytale, or even a well-known book - and sometimes a random idea - his inner child would come to the surface. She leaned against him, and he pulled her close just as the next segment came to, _Rite of Spring._

Now this one was the longest of the performances, and one of the most intense. Igor Stravinsky's original ballet had it as a tribal tale of a young girl dancing to her death as a Pagan sacrifice in the coming of spring. It was an immediate success when it was first brought to life on stage. However, Disney and his artists took "primitive" to another level by turning it into a "codely accurate reproduction of what began with life on Earth billions and billions of years ago". The planet was deep within space, lonely and erupting with destructive volcanoes that spilled their molten fires into the oceans, which gradually began to grow with the first signs of life that weren't particularly defined; over time, they began to turn into all forms of marine, until certain kinds of fish made the decision to leave the deep and shallow waters to become Earth's first amphibians.

Now Sara's academic interest was piqued when the dinosaurs came into existence. It was no surprise that numerous children would be fascinated by these prehistoric beasts; his own had begun that way long ago before he found himself remotely interested in archaeological studies. Every species from Brachiosaurus to the Pteranodons catching food and one of them getting ensnared by an aquatic beast called the Tylosaurus, to the quiet life of every herbivore gathering food to survive...until the worst of all of them, a monster called the Tyrannosaurus Rex arrived in perfect sync with rainfall. His arrival sparked the fear of all the other dinosaurs, forcing them all to flee for their lives - but a Stegosaurus was not so lucky. A fight to the death ensued, but the carnivorous king won his meal.

For the entire time, the little girl whimpered and clutched onto him to a point where he thought he was going to suffocate. Smiling, Monty rubbed her back. "It's alright," he murmured, urging her to look again, but the last of the story fared no better; science and fact seldom ended like a happily ever after. A great drought caused everything to dry up, the dinosaurs unable to find their nourishment under the scorching sun - and this was their wipeout, leaving behind footprints and bones. However, this time, Sara did not appear to be upset.

"Our teacher told us about this in class," she said softly.

"This is what happened long before humans were around," her mother told her, reaching over to rub her leg, affectionately so and as a small amount of comfort, "but really, we will never know what happened because we weren't alive in their time."

Monty hummed his agreement just as the eclipse took place, symbolizing that the world as it was known in the dinosaurs' time was coming to an end; in sync and without warning, the earth rumbled and cracked into a great quake that put San Andreas to shame, taking away what was left of the remains and all evidence of the prehistoric reptiles' existence. Great winds and tsunami waves followed, covering the earth with a great tear, before it was peaceful again until another storm by nature would one day break out for another cycle of life to create.

Other young ones not interested in academia would likely be turned off by the extension of this segment, but not this one between him and Kim. In Lord Fiske's mind, this was one of the most riveting parts of the entire orchestra. The wind had been knocked out of his own lungs.

~o~

The first time Ron saw this with her, he just about screamed and jumped behind her at the same time she had jumped onto him when the ferocious T-Rex came on and killed the Stegosaurus. Even at a young age, they had to root for the good guy winning, so to see the good guy die as a part of life just to give historical accuracy to the king of all dinos, it was traumatic if not giving them nightmares like a much later sequence had done.

The sequence she was still wary about their daughter seeing, but right now was a much happier one to make up for the long-lived tension in the last half an hour.

Following the fifteen-minute intermission was Beethoven's _Pastoral Symphony,_ one of which told a precise story. It was born out of his love of nature and his times in the countryside, one of which was Vienna. If you'd care to do your research on this composition, you would learn what each five forms told as an overall story from start to finish:

First was the morning breaking and invoking positive feelings of setting foot on the land. Following was a moment by the brook or stream, or any flowing body of water; a small waterfall could be possible, depending what destination. Afterwards was a happy gathering for harmless afternoon fun - only to be interrupted by a storm breaking out. The breakout was threatening, ruining the vivid mood...only to clear away and allow a sigh of relief to wash over the serene landscape.

Now, what did this have to do with what Disney adapted for _Fantasia?_ It followed the story Beethoven created, though set in the Greek-Roman universe, consisting of fauns, unicorns as well as Pegasus the flying horse and his family. Then in the river sequence came the centaurs - half-men, half-horse creatures - and their female companions, the "centaurettes" set up with mini Cupids. To follow was the god of wine, Bacchus, having a merry of a time with his devotees...only for storm clouds to roll overhead, and it was none other than Zeus, the king of the gods, throwing his thunderbolts at anyone in the way. All mythical creatures ran for cover, but Bacchus and his donkey were having a comical time trying to find their hiding place. Eventually, no one was harmed by the time Zeus was completed with his fun, going to sleep amongst the heavens and letting the sun and rainbow bask the land with cheer once more. Iris the rainbow goddess let her rays of color illuminate the land, followed by Apollo driving his sun chariot across the sky. It wasn't long before the day came to an end, and Morpheus the god of sleep drew the blanket of evening over and allowed Diana the moon goddess to shoot an arrow of stars as the finishing touch. Apparently, the sight made Sara want to go to sleep early, or any other child watching. It had done the same to her and Daddy a long time ago.

"Wow," was all Sara could say, the monkeys mirroring the word, but Rufus was far from pleased because of how much of the ancient Greek myths had been made inaccurate in here, and Monty had to agree.

"The creators have obviously wasted such classic tales of old with this one," he muttered. "It's distasteful."

Sara looked at him in confusion. "What does 'distasteful' mean?"

He gave her a wry smile. "It means it's not good," he answered. "I think when you're a little older, you might see it better."

Kim had to bet her money the answer might be no, because even at mature ages, Ron still loved the _Pastoral Symphony_ , but Rufus changed his mind after his master died. As for Kim herself, she sometimes bounced back and forth between still adoring it like back then, but half the time she wasn't interested even remotely. But to make up for the boredom was the _Dance of the Hours_ which Sara had to get up at with the monkeys and caused half-distraction on all of their parts.

There really wasn't much to say about this one, but Ponichielli's ballet depicted the parts of the day, beginning with the delicate morning and involving female ostriches, before the bright noon hours picked up with feminine hippos, and ending all things good with elephants and soft yet rich evening - and ultimately the somber night in which menacing male alligators came upon the lead hippopotamus. Well, actually, the lead gator had a major crush on her that he chased her about, and his men as well as all of her friends danced to the rescue, climaxing with all of them crazily dancing until the doors of their noble structure crumbled from the antics.

It was by then that the monkeys and Sara collapsed laughing from the fun of it. Rufus doubled over on the coffee table, cackling with hysteria. Kim's body wracked with her own laughter, collapsing into Monty who was gasping for air.

"I have - have not," he choked, pulling himself up and grasping the remote, pausing the disc to "save the best part", "had this much fun since I don't know when."

She felt the pressure in her esophagus that warned her about choking hazards, so she reached for her Coke on the table and took a few sips, calming down. He was right; tonight was fun in the simplest ways ever. "You haven't seen any fun yet," she reminded Monty, leaning up and kissing him briefly and chastely on the mouth. "Okay, you guys, let's sit down for the best of it all - and it's what you've been warned about." She fixed Sara with her eyes; the kid's eyes widened with knowledge.

"Now I'm scared," she whimpered, crawling in between them again, and Rufus screeched, diving between them with her, grasping the end of Kim's long cardigan to use as a blanket to shield himself. In addition, the monkeys got the message and crowded into each other, holding on for dear life. Snorting and smirking, Monty shook his head and continued the movie in time for Deems Taylor to announce that this was the last number in the program.

 _"...a combination of two pieces of music so utterly different in construction and mood that they set each other off perfectly. The first is_ A Night on Bald Mountain _by one of Russia's greatest composers, Modest Mussorgsky. And then we have Franz Schubert's world-famous_ Ave Maria. _Musically and dramatically, we have here a picture of the struggle between the profane and the sacred. Bald Mountain, according to tradition, is the gathering place of Satan and his followers. Here on Walpurgis Night, which is the equivalent of our own Halloween, the creatures of evil gather to worship their master. Under his spell, they dance furiously until the coming of dawn when the sounds of church bells send the infernal armies slinking back into their abodes of darkness. And then we hear the_ Ave Maria _with its message of the triumph of hope and life over the powers of despair and death..."_

And thus the true spirit of Halloween began.

Really, Bald Mountain was southern Russia's Mount Triglaf, and as depicted on the gloomy blue and black image that was the quaint little village at the foot of the great, bare mountain in which the topmost peak was shone upon by the full moon coming out of the clouds - and the peak parted on either side, only it was not just the simple tower it was believed to be. A great black demon, horned and winged, came out of his resting place, madly grinning as he extended his hands over the town - and summoned his minions of darkness as warned in the beginning. Even the harsh violins and prolonged booming horns that was Mussorgsky's horrific score intensified the imagery.

Just as she predicted, Sara backed further into the back of the couch between her mother and Monty, and Rufus joined her. At their feet the monkeys whimpered and remained close-knit as the black devil's shadowy powers ghosted over certain parts: bats flapped from the church bell tower, the spirits of hanged criminals passed through the nooses, slain warriors on horse arose from the moats of ruined castles, and restless specters from improper burial grounds all joined in a rush for the top of Bald Mountain, commanded by their master.

The evil spirits were not the only ones to come and party; demons of all forms emerged from the flames of hell which were brought forth by the beast himself. Sometimes he picked a handful of dancing ghouls with a malicious grin, but then he would drop them into the fires, condemning them. Then came an eerie sequence when he conjured up a fireball and turned it into three dancing fire maidens, who swayed seductively and freely - but what happened next caused Sara to cry and cover her eyes. The beast turned the flaming women into demonic animals at his own will, then into blue devils who worshipped him to his satisfaction. The monstrous smile made the little one and the animals retreat further into themselves. There was no screaming and running, only frozen in fright as the fiendish frenzy progressed into the creatures leaping for the fun of it into the arising flames and fumes; harpies came into the picture, and one of them took a demon from the flight and dropped it into an endless chasm. Basically this was the job of the harpy in mythology: to snatch at will. Ghosts and demons as well as these bird-winged women could never get enough of this one night where they would come out, but their dark master seemed to be getting an even more perverse joy out of this...

And then it was all over by the time the bells and paling of dawn forced the beast and his ghouls back into their resting places: the spirits retreated back to their graves, the demons into the mountain pit, and the great devil himself wrapped himself up in his wings until next time. But even the peaceful atmosphere coming to did not ease the now crying Sara, who threw herself into her mother.

~o~

Sara had been having nightmares for the past week, and today was Halloween. She awoke him and Kim with her screaming, and the poor monkeys and Rufus had always been on guard, sleeping in her room just to assure her that she was not alone, but that was only limited compared to both her parents.

"Chernabog said he's gonna get me," she'd whimpered one time when Monty sat beside her and did the honors of comforting her. When he was a boy, his father roared at him in the middle of the night, but it was Bates and his late wife Honor who would rock him and sing lullabies until he fell back asleep. The one he knew well was _Goodnight, My Angel,_ and it worked miracles on Sara. A fair few times she asked to sleep with them both, nearly pushing him off the bed half the time. Monty Fiske did not remember falling out of bed - except one time which was best left in the past.

Kim looked at him from the other side of the bed with sad eyes. "Just like how it was for me and her daddy," she said softly. "And we both used to scream with each other." Until their parents wouldn't let them see the sequence again until later. He exhaled sharply and could imagine why; the quivering little thing between them was proof of it.

"He won't, not if we have anything to say about it," he swore to her, kissing the top of her blonde head before the three of them fell asleep, with her in between them.

When Halloween finally arrived, the air was chilled and increased as the sun went down. Orange and ivory lights as well as green and purple - how idiotic, that last part of the palette being included, when it ought to be for spring - were lit in the neighborhood streets, as were the jack-o-lanterns. Autumn leaves whipped past your face and littered the lawns and roads. Monty pulled his coat around himself as he came home from the museum following the completed report on the Druidic agate heart pendant which would soon make its way on public display. The ladies were no doubt getting ready without him; he needed to get into his costume soon. After he and Kim were finished with their own time, they would pick Sara up and return home for the cider. Rufus was going out with her, but the monkeys would be at home making sure the house was well-guarded.

Sara bounded down the stairs while he waited for her and her mother. "Daddy, look at me!" She twirled around in the blue version of Sleeping Beauty's medieval dress, her blonde locks loose and accented with the costume tiara. She was a sweet little darling that she made him smile and bow his head.

"You are darling."

"And what about your lady?" came the voice of the mother overhead. Monty's throat constricted at the sight of his fiancée in one word.

Enchanting.

The dress was luxurious olive green silk with a criss-cross, ruched V-neckline, gradually fading down to sage green; beaded lace accented the striking bust. There was more delicate lace and beading extended over the flowing skirt train. An elegant sage silk chiffon cape was attached to the lace collar so it draped over the back and arms as well as setting off her fiery mane. She looked like an Elven bride - _his bride._

She looked him over and gave him a devious wink. "Has my Elven prince waited long enough for me?" she teased, causing him to nearly growl. She was already stirring him up with the certain trouble, and in front of her daughter and the animals. She extended her hand, the hand which had yet to receive the ring from him, and he placed a kiss on the back of it. His costume was a blue velvet doublet which was stitched with silver Celtic swirls, the royal shade bringing out his eyes, and the trousers were tight and black. The lord could hardly wait any longer to claim his lady - and the tense silence was broken by the impatient little daughter.

"Come on, guys! Can we go?"

She was already out the door when Kim and Monty followed her, greeted by the darkness of Halloween night, chilled by the air and warmed by the lights of the pumpkins and street lights, the cries of costumed children echoing in their ears as they ran from door to door with greedy excitement. Monty laughed at the vivid sight, blessed with the knowledge of his future wife next to him, his little stepdaughter ahead of them with the naked mole rat on her shoulder, before his attention diverted upwards to the heavens, where the moon was full. He shook his head. If Sara had nightmares again tonight, then he would follow through on his word as he always had.

He would make sure no Chernabog, no witch or evil spirit, or anything of the sort, come after them on this night.

 **Nothing but a good old research on a Celtic artifact and ancient history of the heart itself, giving additional texture. The real necklace is known as the "Unique Amulet Celtic Shield Heart Agate". As well, the real facts I found on the actual scores of Fantasia were true to what was seen in the movie.**

 **"Goodnight, My Angel" is a song performed by Celtic Woman that truly gets you to go to sleep at night. :)**

 **Kim's costume is the green version of the Elven bridal gown made by Lillyxandra on deviantart. I really wanted her to have something that foreshadowed her and Monty's wedding at the end of "The Monkey King Takes His Queen".**

 **Cover image is by Welody on deviantart, for a Happy Halloween to all. :D Reviews much appreciated, but zero tolerance on flames.**


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